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tv   Democracy Now  PBS  April 16, 2015 12:00pm-1:01pm PDT

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04/16/15 04/16/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we're fighting for $15 in new union. $15 minimum wage. we feel that is what we need and what we need deserve. amy: the fight for 15. tens of thousands of low wage workers rally across the country in the largest calling for the minimum wage to be hiked to $15 an hour. we will speak to longtime labor reporter steven greenhouse. then to capitol hill. should congress give president fast track authority to negotiate the tpp, the trans pacific partnership? we will speak to florida congressman alan grayson and lori wallach of public citizen. then to heat week at harvard. >> we are divest harvard. >> students, faculty alumni -- >>: on hover to divest from fossil fuel companies.
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>> open up space for political action on climate change. amy: students, professors and alumni are continuing to blockade key administrative offices at harvard. we'll get the latest. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. low-wage workers in the united states have staged their largest action to date, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in over 200 cities to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage. the actions got together fast food workers, childcare providers walmart clerks , adjunct professors and airport workers to demand wage increases and the right to unionize. organizers staged the action on tax day to highlight the cost to taxpayers of supporting workers who are underpaid. a new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion in public assistance. we'll have more on the historic protests after headlines.
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in iraq the self-proclaimed , islamic state has gained new ground claiming several villages , near ramadi, the capital of anbar province. the takeover of at least three villages poses the greatest threat to date by isil against ramadi, which lies about 70 miles west of the capital baghdad. iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi has sharply criticized the saudi-led bombing of houthi rebels in yemen, escalating tensions between two key u.s. allies. speaking to reporters in washington, abadi said the saudi operation had "no logic" and could trigger a wider regional conflict. saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.s. hit back at iraq, defending the u.s.-supported offensive and denying reports of heavy civilian casualties. human rights watch, meanwhile, has called for an investigation into airstrikes by the saudi-led coalition on a dairy in yemen, which it says at least 31 civilians were killed. nbc news has changed its story about the 2012 kidnapping of chief foreign correspondent richard engel in syria after reportg by "the new york times" called his account into question.
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engel had said he was captured by shiite forces loyal to the government of syrian president bashar al-assad. but after "the times" found engel was likely captured by sunni militants affiliated with the opposition free syrian army, engel issued a statement saying the group was sunni, not shiite, but had "put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were shiite shabiha militiamen." in ukraine, a prominent journalist has been shot dead in the capital kiev. ukraine's interior ministry said oles buzina was attacked by masked gunmen. his death comes after a former lawmaker and ally of ousted president viktor yanukovych was found shot to death in kiev on wednesday. about 400 migrants have perished off the coast of libya after the boat they were traveling in capsized. rescuers managed to save 145 people, including at least one baby, but hundreds more appear to have drowned. amnesty international criticized european countries for their approach of migrants seeking to
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cross saying -- "european governments' ongoing negligence towards the humanitarian crisis in the mediterranean has contributed to a more than 50-fold increase in migrant and refugee deaths since the beginning of 2015." the colombian government has as -- moved to resume its bombing of farc rebels following what colombian president juan manual santos called a deliberate attack by the farc. santos said the attack, which killed 10 soldiers and one rebel, marked a breach of the farc's unilateral ceasefire. >> this is a reprehensible act and it will not go without punishment. it requires decisive action, and there will be consequences. we are going to pursue those responsible for the dispensable -- despicable act. amy: president santos did not suspend historic peace talks between the farc and colombian government aimed at ending the 50-year conflict. a mailman from florida has landed a tiny personal aircraft on the lawn of the u.s. capitol
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in a protest to demand campaign finance reform. doug hughes was carrying letters to every member of congress , calling for them to address corruption. he flew about an hour from maryland into restricted airspace and onto the capitol's west lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. he was immediately arrested. before taking off, hughes had spoken about his plans to "the tampa bay times." >> i'm going to violate the no-fly zone. i intend for nobody to get heard. and i'm going to land on the capital mall in front of the capitol building. i'm going to have 535 letters strapped to the landing gear in boxes, and those letters are going to be addressed to every member of congress. i don't believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a six-year-old mailman flying a bicycle.
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amy: hughes' action comes after another apparent protest at the capitol which received far less attention. on saturday, 22-year-old leo thornton shot himself to death outside the capitol while bearing a protest sign that said, "tax the one percent." the european union has unveiled antitrust charges against google. eu antitrust chief margarethe vestager said google appears to be favoring its own products in web search results. >> our investigation so far has shown that when a consumer enters a shopping have in related query in google search engine -- shopping-related query in google search engine, it systematically displays prominent at the top of the search results. this display is irrespective of whether it is the most relevant response to the query. amy: eu regulators have also launched an antirust investigation into google's
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android smartphone software. a protester opposed to the austerity policies of the european central bank interrupted a news conference by the bank's president mario draghi, jumping on a desk in front of draghi and showering him with confetti made from a statement condemning the ecb's neoliberal policies. she wore a t-shirt that said "and the ecb dictatorship." hillary clinton has shifted her stance on same-sex marriage just days after announcing her bid for the democratic presidential nomination. clinton opposed same-sex marriage as a candidate in 2008, then came out in support of it in 2013, but suggested it should be handled by the states. on wednesday, a clinton spokesperson said in a statement clinton -- "supports marriage equality as a constitutional right."
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six people were arrested after occupying the lobby to bp's headquarters in houston, texas ahead of the fifth anniversary of the explosion and oil spill which devastated the gulf of mexico. on april 20, 2010, the deepwater horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering the worst offshore oil spill in u.s. history. among those arrested wednesday were cherri foytlin, from south louisiana. >> i have seen with my own eyes the devastation this spell has caused and continues to cause to this state. the disaster is not over. oil continues to run into our marshes and reaches. the longest mortality event in the recorded history of the gulf of mexico. what i mainly concerned about is the toxic dispersants they used during the spill that is causing a grave health issue for the people in the gulf lost up i have seen children who are sick. in the early days, we had rashes and respiratory problems, now it is moving in a cancer, aggressive cancers. parts of where i live in louisiana, just south of us,
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they say they're bearing about a person a week. amy: protesters say the action is one of several planned for the lead-up to the spill's anniversary, including an action today outside bp's annual shareholder meeting in london. the chicago city council has agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to the family of an african-american 17-year-old who was killed when a police officer shot him 16 times. police say laquan mcdonald was armed with a knife when an officer killed him in october. but attorneys for the family say unreleased video from a police dashboard camera shows mcdonald was walking away from police at the time. the news comes as the city council also considers a $5.5 million reparations fund for victims of police torture. under the rein of chicago police commander jon burge, from 1972 to 1991, up to 120 african-american men were
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tortured with tactics, including electric shocks and suffocation. newly re-elected mayor rahm emanuel has backed a reparations proposal, which includes free city college tuition for victims and relatives, counseling services, a memorial to victims, inclusion of burge's actions in school curriculum, and a formal apology. in oklahoma, the "tulsa world" newspaper reports supervisors at the tulsa county sheriff's office were ordered to falsify the training records of a reserve deputy charged with manslaughter for the fatal shooting of unarmed african-american eric harris. robert bates is a wealthy insurance executive who donated heavily to the tulsa police department. at least three of bates' supervisors were reportedly transferred after refusing to falsify his training and certification records. in southern texas, immigrant mothers held with their children in a private detention center have launched a new hunger
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strike and work stoppage to demand their release. the women are asylum seekers who say they have been denied bond despite having established a , credible fear of violence if they return to central america. honduran migrant kenia galeano who spent five months in detention with her two-year-old son before being released on bond, described how she was put in isolation as punishment after joining an earlier hunger strike. >> we know that we had to find a way to let people outside what was happening inside. we started the hunger strike. there were three of us, three mothers who were placed in isolation. and inside this room, it was really cold. it was dark. there was a bed and the toilet
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was right next to the bed, where we had to go to the bed. my son was in there with me this entire time. amy: for more on the hunger strike and conditions at the karnes detention center, you can go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. low-wage workers in the united states have staged the largest action today to demand a $15 an hour minimum wage with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in over 200 cities. protesters included fast-food workers, home-care aides child-care providers, walmart clerks, adjunct professors airport workers and other low-wage workers. the service employees international union, or seiu helped organize the campaign. in chicago, demonstrators held
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signs saying, "we are worth more!" while in new york, dozens of protesters temporarily halted business at a mcdonald's by staging a die-in, lying on the ground in front of the franchise. several new york protesters carried signs saying, "we work hard" and "we see wage slavery." protesters included jemere calhoun who works at two mcdonald's restaurants. "we're fighting for $15 in the union. $15 minimum wage. we feel that is what we need and what we deserve and it is only humane. we are for a union because without a union, i mean, it is tough to enforce these rules that these companies ignore or to simply don't care about. we need benefits. we need health care. we need sick days. we need maternity leave. these things are really important families. amy: organizers say the action was held on tax day to highlight the public assistance needed to support underpaid workers.
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a new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion in public assistance. according to the university of california center for labor research and education, more than half of combined state and federal spending on public assistance goes to working families. president obama has been pushing to raise the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 to $10.10 . on the state level, colorado maine, california, oregon and washington are all considering increasing their minimum wage to $12 an hour. meanwhile, the center for economic and public research says the minimum wage would be more than $18 an hour if it had risen as fast as productivity since 1968. for more, we're joined by steven greenhouse. he is a former labor and workplace reporter for "the new york times." he has been covering the fight for $15 movement extensively. on wednesday, he co-wrote a piece for the guardian called, "fight for $15 swells into largest protest by low-wage workers in u.s. history." he is also the author of, "the
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big squeeze: tough times for the american worker." welcome to democracy now! talk about the significance of what is been described as the largest low-wage protest in u.s. history >> this began in november 2012 as a one-day affair in new york with 200 strikers. lo and behold, it has grown into a fairly mighty oak with over 200 cities supporting actions in over 30 countries, 60 thousand workers. it has really put several things into the national discussion. one, the issue of low-wage workers and the difficulties it takes to live on $7.25 or eight dollars an hour. second, it has also changed the conversation not about we're just concerned about minimum wage, but establish a living wage. it is brought up the question whether even $10.10 an hour that president obama is pushing begins to be adequate. we have even seen some
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companies, mcdonald's, walmart target, raise their wages. a lot of people say it is the result partly of these pressure campaigns come also because of the tightening labor market. at the same time, saying they would like to see walmart target, go up to $16 an hour which is a big leap. nermeen: what are some of the groups involved in making the movement so large? >> here in new york, there's a group representing many african-americans hispanics poor people. they work with the union. this protest yesterday they started working closely with civil rights groups across the country, black lives matter labor unions in general are very involved. the service employee union has been millions of dollars getting this going, hiring organizers. it has really created a movement that people around the country are saying, there is something
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new here, this is an just workers at a few restaurants. -- this isn't just workers at a few restaurants. this is a movement of fast food workers, walmart workers janitors, homecare aides, and politicians are starting to pay attention. amy: can you talk about the convergence of the different movements? black lives matter, immigrants right movement, occupy before that. go back to 1968. dr. martin luther king died trying to organize the poor people's campaign. talk about this trajectory. >> i went to atlanta a few weeks ago. how they were deliberately trying to combine the movement of the fast food workers at the civil rights movement to show it is not just trying to raise pay a few dollars an hour, but economic injustice and social injustice movement. the meeting was held and reverend king's former church.
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it was very moving. a lot of the language they used, rhetoric they're using, comes out of the civil rights movement that "i am a man." it is really snowballing. one big change i've seen since i started covering this in november 2012, many, many -- we often think of low-wage workers are scared this it their heads above because they could get fired or get in trouble and many are immigrants worried that things will happen to them. people are usually embolden. when i interview a lot of these workers, they are happy to give me their names. amy: $150 billion public assistance? that goes to working families? explain the significance of this, something that i think people across the country identify with, that regular working people and poor working
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people are supporting these large corporations like walmart and mcdonald's i haven't up a public assistance for the workers. >> there is this notion that everyone receives public assistance isn't working isn't looking for a job. the study out of berkeley found three quarters of the money nationwide spent on public assistance or the systems, medicaid goes to families with at least one person working. this is in a drug subsidy like wendy's and burger king and mcdonald's and taco bell and walmart which often pay $7.25 nine dollars an hour, and it is your a to raise your self, no less two or three kids, if you are earning that much. -- it is hard enough to raise
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yourself, no less two or three kids, if you're earning that much. subsidizing the walmart and mcdonald's. mcdonald's respond, thanks in part to our low wages, we're able to give consumers low-cost products. nermeen: and they make the argument that if they paid higher wages, they would employ less people. >> yes. as many of your guests has said on the show, many, many economic studies show a modest increase in the minimum wage will have very little effect on jobs. amy: or they will charge more for the burgers. >> if you raise pay to $15 an hour, they're going to charge more for burgers. even liberal economist like ramstein say -- bernstein say there hasn't been effects of going from $7.25 to $15. we could see some mcdonald's cashiers replaced with kiosks. amy: mcdonald's just announced
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they're going to increase the minimum wage. but explain the little twist. to the non-franchise workers. franchises employs 90% of mcdonald's workers. they won't go to them? >> mcdonald's on april 1 trumpeted this "big announcement" it is raising wages to about nine dollars an hour, raising about 10% for its workers, roughly. but that is only for the workers at company-owned restaurants. that is only about 11% of all the workers and mcdonald's restaurants in the u.s. the other 89% work for franchisees. mcdonald's said, look, we're doing this great thing to help workers. it many workers in the franchise restaurants got really pissed off and i think it just them up. a lot more participated in yesterday's protest than people were expecting.
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nermeen: how likely do think it is that you can speculate that $15 is a realistic goal? and if you could talk about what the impact of this movement is likely to be on the 2016 presidential race. >> when this started in november 2012 i think many, many people said $15 is a crazy -- crazily ambitious number. but we have seen seattle has approved the minimum wage and washington state talks about perhaps going to $15 statewide minimum wage and san francisco has $15 minimum wage and chicago with the centrist mayor has adopted $13 minimum wage. the discussion about what is achievable wage has really changed. $15 is a very ambitious goal, in my view. typical wages and fast food now is about eight dollars to nine
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dollars an hour. we're talking about two thirds increase. that is a lot. my sense is if the movement to get $12 or $13, they would be pretty darn happy. it is hard to know whether $15 is really the goal or a bargaining position to aim for $12 or $13. the explosion in the streets yesterday, i think, is putting pressure on candidates democrat and republicans, to take a stand on minimum wage. certainly, hillary, as the lone democratic candidate, will be pushed to embrace, somehow support the campaign, maybe support them higher minimum wage. republicans uniformly opposed to higher than among wage. i think as this movement builds it will increase pressure on them. marco rubio said, i don't want which is at $10.10 an hour, i want people to be paid $30 an
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hour. that is really dodging the issue. this is going to press the republicans to take a firm stand on what they want to do on minimum wage. amy: i want to jump to what our next segment is, tpp. you interviewed trumka. he said he is duffin of tpp. -- no fan of tpp. >> he says the agreement is too secretive. it is not when you do much to help. he says it will be too much like nafta, increasing imports from overseas and take away jobs from americans, and that he says basically, as part of the corporate agenda, it will help to corporations and not too much for american workers. amy: steven greenhouse is a former labor and workplace reporter for "the new york times." he has been covering the fight for $15 movement extensively. on wednesday, he co-wrote a piece for the guardian called, "fight for $15 swells into largest protest by low-wage workers in u.s. history." we will link to that article at democracynow.org. his book is called "the big , squeeze: tough times for the
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american worker." next up, we will talk about the tpp, transpacific partnership with lori wallach and alan grayson. ♪ [music break]
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amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to the pending vote in congress on the secretive trans-pacific partnership, a global trade deal currently being negotiated between the united states and 11 latin american and asian countries. senate finance committee leaders republican orrin hatch and democrat ron wyden could introduce a introduce a fast track trade promotion authority bill as early as this week that would give the president authority to negotiate a trade deal, and then present it to congress for a yes or no vote, with no amendments allowed.
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the bill would need 60 votes to pass the full senate. republicans control 54 votes and almost all are expected to vote for the measure. on wednesday, more than a thousand labor union members rallied outside u.s. capitol to call on democrats to oppose fast-track authority. they were joined by several members of congress. this is independent senator bernie sanders of vermont. >> what this is about is not just trade. it is about whether this united states congress begins to work with the middle class and working families of this country, or whether it is totally owned by billionaires and their lobbyists. amy: we will let you know if he officially announces he is running for president. for more on the brewing battle in congress over the transpacific partnership and fast track authority in congress, we are joined with lori wallach, director of public citizen's global trade watch.
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and congress member alan grayson is with us democrat of florida. lori wallach, we have been following fast-track and tpp. for those who are not familiar with it, perhaps that is why bills like this go the way they go. explain briefly why the transpacific partnership is so significant. >> the transpacific partnership would make it easier for corporations to offshore our jobs. it is based on the nafta, north american free trade agreement and the korea free trade agreement. it has the same provisions that give companies who offshore, who relocate their investment, special privileges and protections. they make it cheaper and safer to move our jobs to low-wage countries. tpp includes a lot of low-wage countries, which means our wages will get pushed down when americans are made to compete them a for instance, with workers in vietnam who are making less than $.60 an hour.
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in addition, tpp would open to 9000 more corporations the right to drag u.s. government into investor state corporate tribunals. those are the extrajudicial tribunals or panels of three corporate attorneys would be empowered to rule on a claim brought directly against the u.s. government by a foreign corporation, claiming they should get compensation from our tax dollars or any domestic law they think violates their rights under the agreement, and it should get paid for their lost future profits are having to meet our laws. in addition, provisions of the tpp, because most of it is not about trade -- 29 chapters, only 5 about trade -- chapters would undermine internet freedom, the copyright chapter has pieces of sopa in it. the patent chapter would increase medicine prices. it gets big from cynical
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companies big monopolies. the financial services chapter would roll financial regulations. the procurement would underline buy -- undermine buy america. it would undermine the policies that we need to combat the climate crisis. basically, the entire agenda that is needed for a livelihood and health that is decent in america and the people in the 11 other countries isback in the name of a trade agreement that really is just a corporate trojan horse to negotiate for six years in secrecy. nermeen: alan grayson, could you explain your opposition to fast-track authority and what you're calling on your colleagues in congress to do? >> i agree with everything lori just said, but there's a bigger picture to consider. our free trade, our so-called free trade policy has been a
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disaster for the united states since nafta was enacted. before nafta went into effect 20 years ago, we never had any year in our history and we had a trade deficit of $135 billion or more. every single year since then for 20 years in a row, our trade deficit has been over $135 billion. our last 14 trade deficits have been the 14 largest that only in our history, but in the history of the entire world. the result of that is we have gone from $2 trillion surplus with our trade to $11 trillion in debt. we have lost 5 million manufacturing jobs, roughly 15 million other jobs in the last 20 years. we lost twice. we lost the jobs and we have also gone deeper and deeper into debt. what is happening is not that we are buying goods and services from foreigners and thereby equal goods and services from us -- that is the way free trade is supposed to work. what is happening, we are buying our goods and services from
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foreigners and their taking the money we give them from that and buying assets. that has all sorts of consequences for our economy. first, we lose the jobs. secondly, it makes american income and wealth more and more unequal. the reason we have the fourth most unequal distribution of wealth is because of fake trade. unprecedented quantitative easing policy for the government uses the cash in our pockets to buy up assets and drive those asset prices up further and further is because of fake trade. the reason we have a federal deficit is because we have a trade deficit. the what happens is, the tpp fast-track transatlantic version of tpp these dramatically increase the amount of countries with whom we have this relationship. they quadruple them. they put us on a fast-track he toll where america's nothing but cheap labor. amy: i want to turn to president obama speaking in february after he began a major push for
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transpacific ownership. >> this is bipartisan legislation, strongly trade does with asia to europe that aren't just free, but our fair. it would level the playing field for american workers. it would hold all countries to the same high labor and environment will standards to which we hold ourselves. now i am the first to admit that passed trade else haven't always lived up to the hype, and that is why we are successfully gone after country separate the rules that workers expense. that doesn't mean should close ourselves off from new opportunities and sit on the sidelines while other countries right our future for us. amy: that is president obama speaking in february. president obama is, honestly, president of the united states, leading democrat. congressman grayson, he represents your party as well. why the difference? who are the blocks that are united?
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it's not just democrats here and republicans here. what set agree on this? >> it is a mystery to me. i was in the room when he gave that speech. he gave a 45 minutes each on those three senses. that was the only time in that entire speech when the republicans rose up and applauded him and democrats did not. i think that is very revealing. there are very, very few democratic votes in the house of representatives because we represent ordinary working people. the groups that are lobbying the hardest are the multinational corporations. they're the ones who desperately want to see this past for the reasons that lori wallach as mentioned an enumerated. ordinary democrats represent constituencies who have been really hurt very hard at the loss of those 5 million manufacturing jobs and 15 million other jobs. go to any democratic district in ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin and you'll see what i'm talking
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about. the fact is, there is very little support, if any significant support, within the democratic house caucus for fast-track or tpp. we do have a few corporate democrats. frankly, we have a couple of sellout democrats who have sold out to the corporate lobbyists. at the bulk of the democratic party will understands along with the labor movement and ordinary people that these policies have been disastrous for us and it is a lie to say they will improve the economy. in fact, they will continue the downward trend until foreigners own everything. nermeen: lori wallach, i want to ask you about a comment you made about president obama's shift on this. since he voted in 2005 against the central american free trade agreement and subsequently explained his decision in the chicago tribune, what you refer to, his op-ed, as his hamlet essay. could you say why you called it that and what you think accounts for this transition of his on
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free trade? >> i called it his hamlet essay because it was, on the one hand and on the other hand, to be or not to be. he basically voted against central america nafta expansion probably, mainly for politically -- political reasons. the op-ed he wrote basically laid out how much he wanted to be for the agreement. i'm not sure it is so much a transition as he went from not feeling very strongly about these issues but being surrounded by a lot of advisors who thought it was a great idea, nafta,, the few last -- cafta. and forcefully, those are precisely the people he brought in as president to be his or national economic advisers. so the current trade ambassador,
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these guys, some of them are wall street involving door guy authors of nafta. those guys have marinated him in nafta juice and it is basically come to seep into his pores. he now has become a guy who basically, but for maybe the democratic congress saving him the democrats in congress would basically ruin his own legacy passing trade agreement that would undermine everything he has achieved and everything he says he stands for. the good news is congressman grayson says doesn't said, there are only a handful of democrats who are left who are either undecided or prepared to support fast-track. folks across the country, this is a vote echoed have a by the end of april. you are talking quick. every day this debate airs, more and more
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people come out. every person should find out whether person in house of representatives stands on fast-track and asked them directly. call the office over the weekend. look in the blue pages a good the local address of their home. stop by. many have office hours. and as, will you commit to me your constituent, you will hold onto your constitutional trade powers, not vote for fast-track -- a process that is literally a delegation of congress's authority to stand up for us -- and make sure we don't see more jobs offshore in a straight agreement? that is what we all have to do and do it now. amy: lori, can you talk about the investment chapter of tpp that was leaked by wikileaks which highlights the intent of us-led negotiators to create a tribunal were corporations cancer governments if their laws interfere with the companies claimed future profits. >> so this is the chapter that both creates the incentives that
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basically promote countries to offshore. ironically, the cato institute is against this chapter. from their perspective, it is an unfair market distortion evening subsidy in favor of off shoring. so the flip side is, and one of the special privileges corporations would get, they get elevated literally to nationhood. they get the same status as a nationstate to privately enforce the terms of a public treaty. it is called investor state dispute resolution. if you want to learn a lot about it, go to i sdscorporateattacks.org. it is a new website that has all of these cases were corporations are empowered to drag a sovereign government to a tribunal of three private sector trade attorneys who rotate between being the attorneys for
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the corporations suing the government and being the "judges." no, what of interest rules. these private corporate attorneys can order a government to pay our tax dollars in unlimited amounts to a foreign corporation because they think that our domestic environmental land-use zoning health labor laws violate their new corporate rights in an agreement like tpp. the thing is, we have a path full of those kinds of agreements already. under nafta, we had some horrible cases. 400 million dollars has a ready been paid out to corporations. even under nafta were the system is now our them what is proposed, for tpp, but there are very few companies from the countries with had passed agreements with. mainly developing countries. there are 9000 existing companies in all 50 agreements we have with this system, just
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with tpp alone, we have another 9000. mainly companies from japan to companies with sophistication wherewithal, plus if we did the european agreement, we quadruple our liability. so it is only a matter of time before our laws get sacked. warning to everyone, go look at the sierra club website. a recent case like this under nafta, sierra club has a great exposé on it. the actual one of the tribunal list -- tribunalists says, if we keep doing things like this them after break with the rest of you. if we keep doing this, this will kill all of our environment laws. that is what the tribunalist says. alan grayson, do you have to rely on with weeks to get what is in the tpp agreement? >> one of the sad and disturbing elements of this whole process has been the artificial secrecy that is been opposed by the
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administration and by the trade representative by these dealings. i can't think of any other occasion when i served in congress, without sunni elements of deception so large. the public is better informed to the iraqi attacks on isis, which you think would be classified, then it is informed on the trade deal that is going to determine our economic future for the next 20 years. right at the beginning, the trade representative took the absurd position that everything that was being negotiated classified even know it was directly in the hands of the foreign governments with whom he was negotiating. remember normally, liver classified system to keep information away from our enemies or at least -- we have a classified system to keep information away from our enemies. it is congress in the american people that are being denied the information. they took that position for five years, even the 100 members of congress wrote the letter saying, cut this out. i am the first member of congress to see any part of the tpp, even though 600 corporate
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lobbyists are "advisors" and get to see everything. i insist they take that information to my office and in return, they told me i could not take it with me. they told me i could not have my staff present. here's the kicker, they only discuss it with the media public come or other members of congress. it is a farce and meant specifically to keep the information away from the american people because if the american people knew what it was going on they would recognize it as a punch to the face for middle-class america. amy: i assume you heard the story of the gyrocopter that landed on the white house lawn. this mill man named doug hughes basically a flying bicycle, laid it on the lawn. he expected to be blown out of the air. he said he was doing this for mpaign finance reform. get a letter to every member of congress. i want to ask you how much does the money that is going to your fellow democrats and republicans determine their support for tpp?
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>> it is decisive. i am the only member of the house of representatives -- amy: chelated on the lawn of -- he landed on the lawn of the us capitol, so it is closer to you. >> i raised most of mine from small contributions of less than $200. thousands of people came to our website and made contributions. i am one out of 430 five. on the other set of the building at the u.s. senate, there's only one member of the u.s. senate who raised most of his campaign funds from small contributions, bernie sanders, he heard earlier in this broadcast. that tells you something. to a large degree above parties, because of the campaign-finance reform the place is bought and paid for. the only question is to the members they bought. -- will the members stay bought? i was actually in the courtroom when this disastrous citizens
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united decision was decided five years ago. mitch mcconnell was two seats to my left. we were the only public officials in the courtroom. he was the happiest i've ever seen him that day. he was literally chortling. i said on msnbc that night five years ago, if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. well, pucker up. right now, the millionaires and billionaires and the multi- national corporations are calling the shots with whatever they want with the tpp fast-track, more generally whatever they want. they get the bailout and textbooks and so-called deregulation. they get what they want because they get what they pay for. amy: bernie sanders hasn't yet officially announced he is running for president, but what about you? senator rubio has announced he is running for president. will you be running for his seat in florida? >> i am giving it a lot of
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attention. the answer is probably, yes, but i haven't made up my mind once and for all. amy: thank you for being with us, congress member alan grayson and lori wallach, director of public citizen's global trade watch. when we come back, we are to cambridge, massachusetts. what is harvard heat week? stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: melissa etheridge. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to harvard where students are continuing to blockade key administration offices while calling on the school to divest from fossil fuels. harvard has the largest endowment of any university in
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the world, at $36.4 billion. the protest began on sunday when students began blockading massachusetts hall, the school's central administrative building. several alumni of harvard have also taken part in the blockade, including bill mckibben the , founder of the group 350.org and former colorado senator tim wirth. the protests are being organized by the group divest harvard, which produced this video. >> we are divest harvard. >> students -- >> faculty -- >> calling on corporations. >> political action. >> it means taking their money out of investments and also fuels and instead putting it into more socially responsible companies. talks are message is simple. -- >> our message is simple. amy: harvard president drew faust, whose office is in the blockaded mass. hall has spoken against divestment.
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in 2013, she said the endowment should not be seen as a "instrument to impel social or political change." harvard university did not respond to democracy now!'s request for a university representative to join us for today's discussion. we are joined now by two guests. talia rothstein is one of the coordinators of divest harvard. she's been participating in a blockade of mass hall. she's a sophomore at harvard college. and naomi oreskes is history of science professor and affiliated professor of earth and planetary sciences at harvard university. her 2004 essay, "the scientific consensus on climate change," was widely cited, including by al gore in an inconvenient truth, and led to congressional -- and she is co-author with eric conway of, "the collapse of western civilization: a view from the future" and "merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming." thank you for coming off-campus, talia to engage in this interview. tell us what is happening on campus right now.
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>> thank you for having me. this morning we expanded our blockade. we have been holding down a blockade of massachusetts hall which is the main administrative building since under evening. this morning, students and alumni located university hall starting at 6:00 a.m. and holding it throughout the day. it is culminating by surrounding university hall this evening holding hands. amy: why are you doing this? >> our campaign started a few years ago to try to open up conversation with harvard about the impact of its investment in the fossil fuel industry. we have been repeatedly refused open dialogue of the time we feel this issue deserves. and ostracized by the harvard administration. they refuse to engage in this. we attended to create a space for dialogue and inevitably, had to resort to civil disobedience to put as much public pressure
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on the harvard administration as possible. last spring, we blockaded the office of the president as well. a student was arrested after a day and a half. a few months ago, we occupied massachusetts hall for 24 hours. again, received no significant consideration of the issue. so this week, called harvard heat week, we are some links students faculty, community members to show the broad base of support, the range of diverse voices that supports this movement and to make sure the harvard administration can no longer ignore this issue of climate justice. nermeen: professor naomi oreskes , could you talk about what you think the significance of these actions are this week and what the argument is for harvard university to divestment from also fuels? >> i think the significance of these events, there's a dissident -- disconnect from what we know and what we think we know the, change and how we're acting. many people, including our
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president and some of our most distinguished campus leaders have said many times publicly that they know that climate change is real, their scientific evidence, and they feel a great sense of urgency about the issue. and yet that isn't followed up by any action even remotely -- with that sense of urgency. to me it is this disconnect, and a coherence between what we say we know about climate change and yet our failure to really act in the kinds of ways that would be -- with what we need to do. in terms of the argument for divestment, for me the are two key things. it is not so much for me about stigmatizing the fossil feel industry. i think they're already stigmatized themselves. so in our book and the film we just made, we document a long-term will history going back to the 1980's, action going back to 1950's, of industry trying to deny this scientific
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information relating to all kinds of issues, not just climate issues. and what we show is the fossil feel industry has made a major role in these campaigns to discredit scientific information. at harvard we do research, scholarships, we're committed -- our mission is teaching research, learning, scholarship. and yet these industries have worked directly, to liberally, to undermine the very work we do at these institutions. for me, that is a key part of the argument. investing in corporations that are trying to undermine the very thing we do. amy: professor you are on a panel. how is the university responding? we could not get them to come on the show. they flew in charlie rose, is that right, to moderate a panel you were on as well as representatives of harvard university administration division? >> the panel was wonderful in
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many ways. charlie rose is a very gracious man, wonderful person, wonderful interviewer. we had outstanding people on the pan or -- panel. it was a wonderful panel but in my opinion, there were two things missing. there was no student voice. that seemed like a pretty conspicuous omission. and two, there was no real discussion of what the solution looks like. and to say, well, we should continue doing more research and education, flies in the face of what we note, as i just said about the ways in which the fossil feel industry and other allies including utilities even at times the automobile manufacturers, have really colluded to undermine her own work. and that reality, that acknowledgment, there was no discussion of what we should be doing in response to that. to me, divestment is a logical conclusion from a own
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scholarship, my own research but my view is if you don't support divestment, dean neil ought to be proposing some kind of concrete substantive alternative. to me, that was missing from the conversation. nermeen: talia rothstein, could you talk about even of the administration hasn't come out and said anything explicitly to you about the protest going on this week, yet noted that campus police, etc., have given you very few problems in these problems, unprecedented, compared to similar protest in the past. could you talk about that. >> i think the administration has recognized at this point that we have a strong and ever-growing coalition of support behind us. and that has been more readily apparent this week during harvard heat week than it has at any other protests. i think it shows something really significant that the administration, top decision-makers at harvard really fear serious engagement with this issue and talking
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about the impacts of their investments in the fossil fuel industry to the extent that they would rather have as shut down buildings, disrupt administrative proceedings create sort of a huge media storm around this issue rather than seriously engage with us. the police of harvard are getting their orders from above. the decision-makers have decided to leave us alone and really hide from this issue and from our voices. amy: earlier this month, harvard president true faust announced the creation of the harvard university climate change solutions fund. your thoughts? >> as the professor alluded to just now harvard is doing great research and really should be committed for its efforts to reduce emissions on its campus and to create opportunities for
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students to really talk about the solutions to climate change. but there's sort of an integral piece we're missing, which is that the fossil fuel industry is not only at the heart of climate change, but also -- not only exploits are ready marginalized communities by propagating climate change, but also really has a chokehold over our political system in its funding of climate deniers in its campaign to spread doubt about climate change. so until harvard is able to fully reckon with that problem and align its investments with the values of its institution -- the motto of harvard is "truth." it is really astounding that at a university which sort of seeks to train the next generation of leaders, we aren't thinking critically about the impacts of where the money of harvard endowment is going and how that is actually impacting the future. amy: talia rothstein, thank you
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for being with us, one of the coordinators of divest harvard. and professor naomi oreskes is history of science professor and affiliated professor of earth and planetary sciences at harvard university. "the collapse of western civilization: a view from the future" and "merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming." democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]
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